Once again, a student group has painted the tunnel that runs under the Academic Quad only to have derogatory words painted over their work.
In the latest incident in a recent string of tunnel defacing, someone spray-painted slurs over paintings by the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority Monday night.
The vandalism consisted of slurs ranging from the racial, ethnic and sexual to the more innocuous ?nerd? and ?tree-hugger? written in black spray paint over the blue and yellow paint used by YSS.
Almost all possible groups were insulted and anyone the vandals neglected to mention was instructed to ?go to hell.?
The names of the members of the sorority were almost completely untouched, with only one slur covering three names. It did not appear to be in reference to those sisters.
?Its obvious this isn?t directed at us and our organization, but it?s very disheartening to know that there are such narrow-minded people on this campus,? junior and YSS president Brooke Rera said.
Security Investigator Dan Lafferty said that it was ?too early to tell? if the vandalism was specifically aimed at YSS, but that Security was still investigating the matter.
He said this attack differs from the recent graffiti in Rush Rhees Library in that it was not aimed at one specific ethnic group.
Sophomore Allison Dorsey, who discovered and reported the graffiti to Security and YSS, found herself ?scared and shocked? by the messages.
?I never imagined someone in this day and age to even think about saying some of the vulgar language written on the walls,? she said. ?I felt sick to my stomach.?
The YSS members who arrived after hearing of the incident were visibly upset. Painting the tunnel originally took eight hours.
?It?s pathetic and sick,? junior and PSS member Heather Haas said.
The other half of the tunnel, which was painted by Habitat for Humanity, was not vandalized. The vandals used black spray paint which would not have shown up over Habitat?s predominantly black paintings.
After Security fully documented and recorded the grafitti, Facilities proceeded to cover the most offensive slurs shortly after they were discovered, Director of Security Walter Mauldin said.
He said facilties cleaned the worst of the graffiti after it was properly documented so that ?it does not sit there and continue to offend.?
However, Rera said some of the slurs were still readable the next day and others had not been covered. She said she had told Security to contact her if Facilities could not adequately cover the slurs, but that she had heard nothing from them.
Mauldin said he would be hesitant about putting a security camera in the tunnel. Security does not want to give any impression that they wish to control acts of expression in the tunnel.
?The wall is a free wall for people to do things on,? he said. ?What they did was simply a cowardly thing done to deface the work of a sorority. It would have to be a pretty serious situation? before Security would consider installing a camera, he said.
This incident is one of many. Someone defaced Sigma Delta Tau?s tunnel paintings last week. A homophobic slur was painted in the tunnel in early February. Racist graffiti has been reported a number of times in recent weeks.
?One type of intolerance gives others permission to be intolerant about other things,? Intercessor Kathy Sweetland said. ?Intolerance of any sort is unacceptable … and very distressing for the entire university.?
